Friday 10 October 2014

Lower Grosvenor Gardens SW1

The French sculptor Georges Malissard was noted for his statues of horses, often shown with jockeys, polo players, soldiers and, in the case of Albert of the Belgians, royalty.This is a copy of his portrait of the charger Bengali, Marshal Foch up. Ferdinand Foch was one of the few generals of genius in the First World War, and became three times a marshal, of France (naturally), Britain (Field Marshal in 1919) and Poland (in 1923).
The statue was erected in 1930. The 1928 original (below) is in Cassel, Foch's headquarters at the battle of Ypres,
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2 comments:

  1. Hels12 October 2014 at 12:42

    Why did he become a marshal outside France - did he lead troops from Britain and Poland, as well as French soldiers?

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  2. Chris Partridge12 October 2014 at 18:25

    Foch was Generalissimme of all Western-front forces in 1918, so was Haig's boss, and advised the newly-independent Poles on kicking out the Bolsheviks.

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